After a long journey through my 20′s–geographical, temporal and otherwise–I have now landed in an office that is down the street from my high-school. I am basically okay with this.  It is also down the street from where I attended driver’s ed: 86th St. in front of North Central was among the first stretches of road that I drove out upon legally, accompanied by a driving instructor who–it seemed to me–lived in an unwavering state of barely contained fury and constant paranoid vigilance.

I’m not sure if everyone had this experience, but my Driver’s Ed teacher made driving around in Indianapolis sound like it was about on par with going over the top of the trenches in World War I and sprinting out into No-Man’s-Land during the Battle of Somme under heavy fire. His attitude was pretty much like, “Well. You might survive without being taken prisoner. But if you do, it will basically be a lucky accident. And frankly, knowing you, it would surprise me.”

Occasionally, mid-commute, my mind will drift back to those days. I’ll remember the grisly stories that I was told in Driver’s Ed about the mortal danger zone that I would immediately be plunged into if I ever drove out into traffic without first checking my tires to make sure that they were at the correct air-pressure, having my hands at 10 & 2 o’clock on the steering wheel, making sure my mirrors were adjusted to ideal angles for a maximum span of surveillance, and sitting erect in the driver’s seat in a frozen 90 degree angle posture, with my eyes looking straight ahead at all times aside from occasionally darting left or right to look in the rearview or driver’s side mirror.

For a moment my hands will spring back to their 10 & 2 o’clock positions and my spine will stiffen into an erect posture. When I turn, I will turn hand over hand, immediately returning my hands to 10 & 2 after completing the turn.  My eyes will scan my mirrors at the recommended “every 10 to 15 seconds” frequency, just to make sure that no semis or busses are accelerating behind me at a speed and proximity that would indicate that if I don’t step down on the accelerator they will roll over my car from behind and crush me (apparently, according to my Driver’s Ed instructor, there’s usually about 50-50 chance that they probably are).

I’ll slow my vehicle down by about 5 miles per hour to drive in perfect conformity with the speed limit. I will take my foot off the accelerator and begin slowing my vehicle at the recommended 800 yard distance before Stop signs.   I will brake and accelerate smoothly, pretending that a glass of water was sitting on my dashboard and I didn’t want to spill it.

Unfortunately, if I am completely honest, I have trouble maintaining this level of disciplined operational perfection at all times while I am out on the road. Even more frightening is the fact that, according to my understanding, other people sometimes have problems doing this too.  We are all out there on the road in various slumpy postures, with imperfectly adjusted mirrors, and our hands—God forbid—at all sorts of incorrect positions on the steering wheel, driving 5 miles over the legal limit.

In all seriousness, driving back and forth to work is without a doubt the most dangerous activity that most of us partake in during an average 24 hours.

That’s where Pulse comes in. 90% of rear-end collisions are avoidable with extra warning. Just watch this video and see if you don’t agree with me.

A Marketing Challenge: Pulse’s product-offering—namely, pulsing third brake lights—is not available to consumers for direct purchase. Instead, Pulse partners with car dealerships across the country to provide this safety feature. Consumers who want to purchase one need to locate a nearby dealership who can install Pulse in their vehicle.
 
This presents a marketing challenge – and opportunity. Pulse focuses on a two-pronged outreach. Their main focus is in-person networking between dealership personnel and their nationwide sales team. To bolster that, they use social media to make connections and help co-promote their product. SmallBox helped by offering consulting around social media best practices and helping produce video content (the one embedded above!) to tell the Pulse story.
 
Pulse is just starting to blow up all over the country—keep an eye out and you’ll probably see their product while driving down the road at some point in the next few weeks.  It’s a small but extremely important innovation that will save lives—and no doubt already has. You can find Pulse on Facebook, Twitter, You Tube and LinkedIn.

This is the first installment of a new series that SmallBox will be running to highlight some of the cool things our clients are doing.  We’ve worked with such a diverse array of businesses over the past few years, the variety is almost mind-boggling.  We work with such a wide variety of companies and industries. From an HR and Employee Benefits company to a company that specializes in delivering top-quality, low-cost flooring products like vinyl plank flooring, we feel like we have a million stories to tell about our clients, and no one to tell them to but each other.  So we thought we’d try sharing a few of these stories with you, dear reader.

No. 2: Brand Digital Ecosystem

Floors To Your Home is one of our first clients to become fully invested in a new integrated marketing strategy that SmallBox is calling our ‘Brand Digital Ecosystem.’  Floors To Your Home is thinking outside of the box and beyond the borders of their website about new ways in which their online brand can be enhanced.

Several times this year I got handwritten thank you notes in the mail from my good friend Micki. A couple of the notes were expressing gratitude for small favors many people would have marked with a simple spoken “Thank you.” Perhaps because getting handwritten notes has become so rare for me, her cards made a big impact. When most communication happens via text, email and Facebook, there’s something intimate and cozy about recognizing someone’s handwriting.

Handwritten notes shouldn’t be so scarce.
On any given day this time of year, I know I might find a holiday card in the mailbox. Wouldn’t it be great if checking the mail was this exciting throughout the year? Thanks to Micki I’ve been making it more of a habit to spread random mailbox cheer.

If you’d also like to send more personal notes, but don’t have the addresses of family and friends, check out Jenny Banner’s new app, Addy Me for quick, easy collecting of your contacts’ mailing addresses.

This post is part of Think Kit 2011.

Lydia and I used to participate in a group blogging project called Reverb run by Gwen Bell. The idea was simple: post on your blog everyday in December (or as much as possible) following a series of prompts designed to reflect on the past year.

Yesterday I got an email that Gwen wasn’t going to run the project this year. Instead, she open sourced it, inviting others to create their own version. We couldn’t resist. With one day to swoop into action, we hatched this plan and dubbed it Think Kit.

Daily posting? Are we crazy?!
We wanted to flex our publishing muscle a little. We like to blog. We squeeze it in when we can. This project will help us approach our sharing habits with a little more intention, at least for this one month.

At the same time, we’ll sate another need: we like to connect with our community and value being part of a larger Indy tech culture. We’re hoping other companies and individuals will join us. Won’t you, please?

Why Think Kit?
In our weekly internal meetings, we talk a lot about ideas, from whence they spring, how we seek and maintain inspiration. This seems like a perfect place to start – a simple set of topics to spark some thought and wordsmithing.

Week 1:
We’re keeping it simple to start. The first week is all about reflecting on your favorite things from this year. Today: a favorite photo.

Go here to see this week’s prompts. There, you’ll also be able to sign up to receive a daily email about each prompt during December.

Are there any rules?
Only rule is no rules! Post when you want, write about 3 prompts or 30, change up topics. Take the Think Kit and make it yours. We can’t wait to see what you do with it.

Happy Think Kitting!

Have you ever checked the “Hidden Posts” on your business Facebook page?

The Scoop on Facebook’s Hidden Posts:
In an attempt to filter out spam, Facebook sometimes catches a legit comment in its snares. If you’ve ever gotten what seems like a phantom notification and can’t find the comment anywhere, chances are it ended up in the hidden posts. Check there regularly to be sure you aren’t missing engaging comments! You can “unhide” the post to display it on your wall.

So what is Vyou? It is pretty much formspring meets youtube. The premise is that people can ask users questions by typing a query into a form field. The questions can be asked either anonymously, or with a name attached for registered account holders. The user receives a notification of the new question, and the user responds in a short video.

It’s a neat little site that I was introduced to it when I was following the creator for an animated show that I enjoy. I thought it would be interesting to sign up and get a sense of how I could possibly include this new social Q/A service into my web life, and also to share my conclusions with all of you!

I found my first day that it was pretty exciting. VYou tweeted out my name and soon I had a flood of questions to answer from people all around the world. Most of the questions were inappropriate or obviously spam, but I got a few good ones. But after that initial day, even after tweeting it a couple times, I haven’t gotten a single new question, and I haven’t really been interested in asking Courtney Love any questions (it looks like she doesn’t use the site much anymore anyway). I looked and most of the interesting people on Vyou have already stopped answering questions months ago. Therefore I was left without much reason to visit the site again.

Ask Courtney love about sobriety! Its all she talks about!

Which is sad because I think its a great idea. I just think it needs some help. I think it will probably die out unless one of these things happens:

The site gets some buzz and people start using it again,
• They partner with formspring, who already has a strong user base,
• Justin Bieber signs up.

I think it would be a great service for promoting various projects. I would love to ask a cinematographer how shooting is going on the newest movie he is working on,  ask a member of my favorite band about their latest recording session, or have an artist show a sample of what they are working on. Simply put, Its a great way for you to ask questions directed at people you wouldn’t normally get a chance to interact with.

If you have any comments or questions about it feel free to leave them below or if you want a fancy video reply ask me a question on Vyou here!

Aside from devigning websites here at SmallBox, I’m also quite involved in the Indianapolis dance music scene. Having planned or organized over 100 dance music events in Indianapolis, and being such a tech nerd, I’ve learned several ways to make sure an event goes off with a bang. Here are a few things I’ve learned about promoting events online:

Offer as many ways as possible for fans to learn and spread the word about your events. Where you promote your event depends a lot on who your target audience is.

• Facebook. If you’re putting on a public event that in any way relates to music or art, you’ll want to create a Facebook event. You’ll also want to use your company’s Page and even your own Facebook profile to highlight the works of your featured artists or performers.
• Email Marketing. This might seem old school, but email really works! Always give your fans a way to sign up for your newsletter, whether on your website, through contests or a simple sign-up sheet at events.
• Think Local! If your event is about art or music, chances are there are local magazines and websites that will post about your event or give away free tickets. You might even get some coverage! Good examples in Indianapolis include NUVO, IndyMojo and Musical Family Tree.
• Other Social Spaces. Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIN might not have mechanisms especially for events, but any avenue that reaches your audience is a good one. There are tools that integrate with these services, however, like schmap.it, which offers credits for you to get your event in front of other twitter followers in your area.
• Your own website. Post your event on your own website! Be sure to include tools so that your visitors can easily RSVP to your event as well as share the event on their own social profiles.

Broad Ripple Music Fest event on Facebook

Target your promotions as best as possible, but don’t wear out your welcome. People have a low tolerance for noise in their lives, so it’s best to avoid being part of it. You might have 5,000 friends on Facebook, but unless you’re sure all of them want to attend your event, it’s best to invite only those that would be interested. Use Facebook’s friend groups or location filters for this. If you’re putting on an all-locals event, just invite locals. If you’re bringing a bigger, more established talent, you might send out invites to the surrounding cities and states as well.

To avoid annoying your fans, make sure your posts are relevant and well timed. Watching the details of an event unfold is exciting, so make a post when you’ve confirmed fire dancers for your event, but don’t beat your audience over the head with it.

Offer a discount to fans that are willing to purchase tickets ahead of time. This isn’t really an issue if you’re throwing a free event, but if you’re going to offer up tickets ahead of the event, be sure to offer a discount (and discount enough to make up for the associated fees).

Be a part of the community. This includes going to other events, participating in online discussions, making friends, supporting others’ events, supporting other bands, DJs, artists, and the organizations that support them.

Get your friends involved. Chances are you have friends that not only want to attend your event, they, too, want to see it a smashing success! Send them a quick note asking for their help and support. Ask them to take photos, design a flyer, spin fire, do live art or even just spread the word.

Last but not least, don’t rely solely on the internet! Didn’t see that one coming, did you? The internet is a great place to get the word out and for having meaningful communication, but nothing beats real life communication and a friendly smile.

Do you have any tips for promoting events online?

Back when I first started college, I found a group of college kids from around the world, connecting on a web forum about music. I quickly got hooked, as my budding interest in recording and listening to music on vinyl wasn’t very accepted by my peers in the dorm rooms of Ball State. This online community was the perfect place for me to grow musically.

I remember talking late one night in one of the chat rooms we had set up through IRC (remember those days?). I knew that this community could benefit from having an internet radio station where we could feature different users each week, with the ability to chat and exchange ideas while listening in on the music.

I figured out how to broadcast from my computer to others, but it was difficult to bring in users to play and participate. Needless to say that idea failed quickly due to the time requirements it would take for me to organize and run it. Plus it cost money, money a poor college student didn’t have.

Now in 2011 we have what I wanted in 2005, and it’s called turntable.fm. Turntable is simply brilliant.

For those unfamiliar, you sign up through Facebook or Twitter, and enter rooms and listen to music, chat and if you are lucky enough, you can snag a DJ table and start spinning music for that group of people in that room. Turntable has many features that will suck your soul out and soon you will find yourself spending hours picking that next perfect song for all your friends.

It has become quite the hit here at SmallBox. All of us are avid music and technology lovers and turntable blends the two in harmony. But what really impresses us is the social aspect of it. Listening to music is one thing, but being able to share it with others is so engaging and helps expand and refine your tastes in music. I have already found 5 bands on turntable that I have never heard of previously, and now have bought their albums because of it.

There is a gaming element as well. When playing a song listeners can vote whether they thing the song is awesome or lame. If awesome, your DJ avatar gets points that can be used to upgrade your appearance. If voted lame by a majority of people in the room, your song will be skipped. The thrill of getting a song voted awesome by everyone in a turntable room is addictive and exhilarating.

There are some limitations right now unfortunately. First, only people from the US can access the site. Rooms only allow up to 5 DJs and as a DJ you can only play one track at a time.

As with many music sites on the web, the future of Turntable.fm is uncertain. Currently they are dealing with licensing problems and many songs are getting pulled from the site. Users can still upload their own songs, but it is often buggy and takes lots of time. Apparently there’s interest among many investors in supporting the company, and only time will tell if turntable will stay alive in this strange digital rights battle online.

In my opinion if done correctly, turntable could be an integral part of my social interactions with people on the web. It’s addictive, fun, and combines my a few of my favorite things – technology, music, and friends.

I would continue, but I am DJing right now and I need to find the next song to play.

Last week Google launched Hotpot–a local recommendations service with a peculiar name, and unknown potentials. ‘Hotpot’ takes its name Chinese communal dining experience: everyone gets together and throws something into the bubbling hot broth.

I once went to a hotpot in DC, and it was fantastic. You dump a bunch of oil and stock into a cauldron, and then you throw in mushrooms, vegetables and meat as demand arises among the assembled guests.   The concept is to just sort of stuff yourself all day long, lying around on blankets like at a picnic.  Rice liquor is a recommended as a beverage to accompany the meal, but I seem to recall that everyone was drinking beer.  The concept is in the classical mold of a ‘feast day,’ for which there is no real American parrallel (Thanksgiving is a more organized and discrete affair).

In Google’s Hotpot everyone’s opinions and recommendations steep in their algorithm. Hotpot will use your baseline opinions to start creating profiles and recommendations which will provide value for users: can’t decide what you want for dinner?  Google knows.

Hotpot is user-friendly by anyone’s standards: log in, search for a place and theme (i.e. restaurants, tourist attractions, clubs etc.) and it generates suggestions which you are then invited to rate. Hotpot allows you to see the ratings of others.  Once you’ve starred five places, Google starts to give you reccomendations.  At first these recommendations are going to be pretty predictable.  The concept is that these reccomendations will become more refined as Hotpot learns from you, and that as your friends start using it, their recommendations will begin to influence your preferences as well.

The hotpot that I went to in Washington D.C. was amazing.  My read on Google’s Hotpot is less clear. Google is at a disadvantage insofar as their coming late to the market–Yelp is very established at this point, and they may be able to depend on user-loyalty for some time in precisely the demographic that Hotpot is designed to appeal to.

On the other hand, Google’s motherload of personal and user behavior data uniquely positions them to generate accurate and interesting reccommendations. Gmail, for example, is a holy grail of information about my personal preferences, hobbies, and passions.  However, the consensus seems to be that Hotpot has a long way to go before it becomes a viral success. Basically, Hotpot is like Google places with a weak social media element (friend connect), game mechanic (leaderboard), and input/recommendation engine (flipcards) layered on top.  The application could be dramatically improved by focusing on user engagement and flow.  It would seem that, Facebook and Yelp still maintain a leg up on Hotpot in this niche arena of connecting people to places.

Have you checked out Hotpot?  What do you think?

It seems everyone is on Facebook these days…. from news media “crowd sourcing” their latest reports to the DOT hosting a page to post traffic issues and road closings for area citizens — its widespread adoption is more and more apparent. Many come because they want to be part of the “social media” party — they want to engage and be a part of a bigger conversation. But with a party as BIG as the one Facebook hosts, how much “socializing” actually happens?

Let me put it another way — how many times have you posted something to Facebook and were left feeling like you were casting a message in a bottle out onto the open sea? Only to get back — if you’re like me —  a few passive-aggressive thumbs-ups and a comment or two from people you rarely actually see in real life. What’s so social about that?  In my opinion, it appears that in the mad dash to get everyone on board the social media train we’ve somehow lost the whole “social” part of it. But I see a glimmer of hope… for those of us interested in being a bit more social and a little less “sold” in our social media…

Enter what I am calling the “niche social network disguised as a mobile app”. With the rising popularity of mobile applications for smart phones and iPads, more and more developers have been integrating social media engagement right in the app itself — a smart move, geared toward driving more audience engagement, traffic, and therefore growth.

Of course gaming apps have been doing this for ages, but specifically I am talking more about “hobbyist” apps… for instance:

• SketchClub
• Instagram
• Guitar “Lick-of-the-Day”

I love apps like these and others that feature integrated social media  as part of the overall app. Frankly, it’s a more satisfying user experience — not to mention a shrewd business strategy —as typically the user interprets the social integration as part of their paid experience. That is, they see it as a feature of the application and therefore are more likely to utilize it.

A Real World Example: SketchClub – I love to sketch and draw on my iPad. I recently bought an app called SketchClub from the App Store.  Now, I’ve tried almost every drawing app available for the iPad, but this one is my favorite by far — not because its a better drawing app (it has its strengths and weaknesses, but is essentially on par with the rest) — I like it best because it gives me something to DO with the artwork that I create.

Behind the app lies a small, but robust social network for those that buy the app… in this case, other people like me who like to draw. Why is that great? Relevance. You see, when I use the app to draw, its a natural next step for me to then post that new drawing to the group via the app. And the BEST part? The members actually INTERACT!  No more “message in a bottle” feeling… Members comment on each others artwork — from compliments to constructive criticism to tutorials and tricks. Plus I feel way more satisfied because my experience doesn’t stop with me drawing a picture, throwing it up on Facebook, and hoping someone eventually takes interest. Now when I post something, I know I am going to get a response, I look forward to it. That’s called ‘engagement.’

Recently they upped the ante even more… providing new features to the app/network that give a user inspiration and even more reasons to engage, such as:

• An earned-points system, where each task you perform (upload, leave a comment, rate a drawing, etc.) earns you points… encouraging members to continually interact.
• Weekly themed drawing competitions — these give people lots of good inspiration for subject matter (sometimes the scariest thing about drawing is figuring out WHAT to draw.) The competitions are decided by member vote, and first place actually gets a real reward — typically a $25 Amazon.com card.

SketchClub focuses on improvements that increase creative motivation and usage of the app, which in turn creates more conversation and engagement between members — and that’s called ‘sustainability.’

Tell me, do you find yourself more inclined to participate in online “social” activities when its part of a mobile app experience?